The country, at night
Flying over this country on a clear night is a powerful lesson in the actual and metaphorical existence of the human animal. By daylight one can see patterns, the circular trace of sprinkler systems, the clusters of buildings that crop up wherever the monotonous grid of roads make a crossroads. Human beings gather together (having just returned from New York, I can say, and HOW they gather together!) like planetary systems and galaxies gather, pulled towards each other for no other reason than the simple mass of their existence.
But at night, once one leaves whichever urban sprawl has spawned the airport, and without daylight to turn landscape into potential residences, there pass hours of darkness nothingness below, black on black punctuated by a dot of light here, a cluster there.
Until out of the blackness emerges a vast lake of lights, a golden smear against the darkling plain. Shaped like an amoeba by invisible boundaries, with no clue whatsoever why it would be there instead of half an hour from there, it is impossible to gaze down at the city of lights below and remain unaware how very alone we are in inhospitable space.
Hello.
My name is Wayne Cheong and even though this opening sentence might sound a tad like a precursor to helping a dispossessed Nigerian prince, my intentions are far less dubious.
I’m planning a website or a possible future book about the query, “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?” It’s a list of answers from all my favorite writers, artists, musicians, comedians, etcetera.
I know you’re busy and have been asked that question numerous times and I hope you can reply with an official answer. It can be of any length; snarky; humorous; academic. I have quotes from Johnathan Carroll, Brian K. Vaughan and I hope to add you to the list.
You can reply to this post or e-mail me at: wayne_cheong@msn.com
This project is still in its infancy and I’m still a neophyte with the whole html-thingy but once the website is up and ready and I can e-mail you the URL.
So.
Where do you get your ideas?
Laurie, I’ve been awed on many a night flight by the crystal beauty of lights below . . . sometimes horrified by why it is that we are so afraid of the dark we must pollute the night skies with billions of energy-burning lights, even in parts of town (huge parking lots) where no one is sleeping to be protected by light. But, hospitable or inhospitable space is an intriguing question. I guess it depends on many confluent factors.
One of the things I do to keep the dark at bay, I look here every day and hope to actually be there some glorious day. http://scillywebcam.blogspot.com/